


"Remember I love you"

by SimeonHowe



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Married Couple, Romance, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-18 05:22:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10610121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimeonHowe/pseuds/SimeonHowe
Summary: It had become their phrase, their constant reminder of how much they’d been through, of who they were to each other, of what they could be.Sarcastic, poignant, everyday. So many ways to say the words. So many different meanings.





	

_Remember I love you._

It had become their phrase, their constant reminder of how much they’d been through, of who they were to each other, of what they could be.

When Stiles first returned, he couldn’t stop saying it. Like he was trying to convince himself he wasn’t dreaming as much as reassure Lydia that he was fine, that he was real, that he was with her again. At the beginning of every day when she picked him up, at end of every break when she walked into a different classroom, at start of every pack mission when they had to split up. Once when she left the group’s lunch table to use the bathroom. “Remember I love you.”

During the long-distance years of college, they were the words that finished every Skype chat, every email, every phone conversation. When their schedules didn’t allow for the usual goodnight call, she would receive a text just before Stiles fell asleep. “Remember I love you.”

After they managed to move in together, it was the promise that lulled Lydia’s overworking brain into calming at the end of each day. Crawling into bed for the night, Stiles would curl himself around her to whisper before beginning his gentle snore. “Remember I love you.”

Sarcastic, poignant, everyday. So many ways to say the words. So many different meanings.

They were the flippant apologies when he broke her mother’s china, when he forgot something on the grocery list, when he let Scott drag them into yet another misadventure. “STILES!” A sheepish “Remember I love you?” combined with his cheeky grin never failed to appease her manufactured wrath.

During their rare actual arguments, Stiles would never storm out. No matter how angry they got, no matter how loudly they yelled, no matter what words they said. He’d always pause in the doorway. Stop, turn around to meet her eyes, and quietly assure before leaving to give them both some space. “Remember I love you.”

Lydia heard the words before every class she taught, every lecture she gave, every award she won. The nerdy high schooler who had erroneously claimed she would win the Nobel Prize became the husband who correctly predicted she’d receive the Fields Medal before age thirty. When that call came in, Stiles was smugger than Lydia. “Remember how I told you this would happen?” Then, more panicked, “And remember I love you and you’d never want to leave me for fame and fortune?”

As the years passed, the words weren’t always directed at Lydia.

On his thirtieth birthday, Stiles began annual MRI scans, terrified of inheriting his mother’s dementia. Each time as the bench pulled him into the clanging machine, Melissa would hear the heartbreaking chant. “Remember you love her. Oh god, please. Please remember you love her.”

When the test results would come in the mail, Lydia would hold one hand while his other held the envelope. As he opened it, she’d be the one to say the words. “Remember I love you?” “Yeah.” Trembling, Stiles would read the letter. And year after year, he’d let out a shaky sigh, then look up to smile at Lydia. “Still remember I love you?” “Yeah. Always.”

And at age thirty-four, Stiles finally vowed it to someone else. Holding their infant daughter in his arms, awe-filled tears in his eyes, the new father murmured: “Allison Claudia Stilinski, there’s something I need you to do for me, okay? I don’t know how good at this I’m going to be. But remember I love you. Do that, and I swear it’ll all work out. Just…just remember I love you.”

_Remember I love you._


End file.
